South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday congratulated Mr. Mohamed Morsi as the winner of Egypt's presidential election and said Pretoria is ready to assist Egypt to advance its reconciliation and constitution-building process.

"South Africa welcomes the official announcement made by Egypt's electoral commission, declaring Mr. Mohamed Morsi of the Freedom and Justice Party, as the winner of the presidential election," Zuma said in a statement issued by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

"We would like to take this opportunity to extend our congratulations to Mr. Morsi and the people of Egypt for a successful election," Zuma added.

Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was declared Egypt's first democratic president by the state election committee on Sunday. The committee said Morsi defeated former general Ahmed Shafik with 51.7 percent of run-off vote.

Morsi, the U.S.-educated engineer is succeeding Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown 16 months ago after a popular uprising.

Zuma said South Africa is looking forward to working with Cairo's elected representatives and is also looking ahead to Egypt, taking its rightful place among the community of nations in Africa and globally.

In October 20101 Zuma visited Egypt, the first such visit by a South African head of state since 1994. He was accompanied by more than 100 business people seeking to expand trade, cultural and political relations.

During the visit, several sectors were identified for cooperation between the two countries, including energy, tourism, mining, agro-processing, finance, infrastructure, agriculture and industrial products.